Leonardo’s presumed lost fresco may have been found in Florence

It is possible that the researchers found traces of the lost fresco Leonardo da Vinci taking a sample of the substance that broke through the cracks in a fresco painted in the 16th century on the wall of one of the most famous buildings in Florence - Palazzo Vecchio.

Photo: EPA / NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
Fragment of the wall of the Florentine Palazzo Vecchio. The discovery of black paint, similar to that used in Mona Lisa, aroused hope among researchers that Leonardo’s lost fresco “Battle of Angiari” could be hidden behind a false wall. It is believed that she was hidden by the artist and art critic Giorgio Vasari (Giorgio Vasari), when he was instructed to paint another mural in the city hall of Florence. “The research team, in which art historians and scientists worked together, combining searches in historical monuments and modern science, revealed a secret that has excited us for more than 500 years,” said Terry Garcia, executive vice president of the National Geographic Society in the United States, which sponsored the project.

The latest finds made on Monday still cannot remove the veil of secrecy from the Battle of Angiari, a mural painted by Leonardo in the legendary Florence Palazzo Vecchio, and possibly hidden under the mural that Giorgio Vasari created a couple of decades later.

The search for an unfinished fresco for centuries occupied the minds of art critics. In recent years, they are being conducted with renewed vigor, thanks to the invention of more precise tools.

Some believe that Leonardo’s fresco, which he began work in 1505 in memory of Florence’s victory over Milan in the medieval Tuscan town of Angiari in the 15th century, could be hidden under a new layer of plaster, on which Giorgio Vasari painted his fresco several decades later. “The Battle of Angyari” Leonardo remained unfinished, as the artist left Florence in 1506.

Maurizio Seracini, an Italian engineer from the University of California, San Diego, told reporters that fragments of paint taken in the hall of the palace dating back to the 1500s match the pigments used by Leonardo. He noted that the analysis confirmed that red, black and beige paints are identical to the organic paints that Da Vinci used for his murals. But the paint could also be used by Florentine contemporaries of Leonardo, so the Renaissance art specialist, Ceracini, called the results “inspiring,” but so far only preliminary.

According to Cristina Achidini, head of the Center for Cultural Heritage and Museums in Florence, to take samples of pigments on a wall that was recently discovered by Vasari, experts took samples in all places where the paint on the mural cracked or crumbled.

For one sample, the sample was taken from the spot under the sword down in the picture of Vasari. For another, next to the horse’s head, whose eyes are wide in fear.

Seracini was inspired by the words “Cerca, trova”, (“Seek and Build Up”), which were written on the tiny flag in Vasari’s picture of the battle. Those who believe that Leonardo’s work could be hidden under a later fresco appeal that it’s unlikely that Vasari, known for his biographies of Renaissance artists, could destroy Leonardo’s masterpiece.

“We found special black pigments and a little red,” Seracini told reporters. “Red is a type of varnish“ that was used for oil painting. And these data coincide with the intention of Leonardo to write his “Battle of Angyari” with oil paints, ”added Seracini.

The search for the disappeared fresco of Leonardo was led by the National Geographic Society and the University of California at San Diego, in collaboration with the authorities of Florence. Experts from the world-famous Opificio delle Pietre Dure Institute for the Reconstruction of Art were also involved.

“This data is encouraging,” said Seracini, a member of the National Geographic Society. “And, although we are still in the preliminary stages of the study, and it is still necessary to do a lot of work to solve this mystery, there is evidence that we are looking in the right place,” the press release said with reference to Seracini.

The researcher and his colleagues note that the particles of black paint found under the Vasari mural are similar in chemical composition to brown paint in two works by Leonardo: “Mona Lisa” and “John the Baptist”. The red particles found there turned out to be organic pigment. A study of high resolution endoscopic images allowed us to conclude that the beige spotted on the original wall was applied with a paint brush.

Previously, using radar and X-rays, Seracini and his team discovered voids beneath the mural of Vasari, which, in their opinion, indicate a gap between the two walls.

Florence Mayor Matteo Renzi said one of the plans is to remove some parts of the Vasari mural, reconstructed in the 19th-20th centuries, in order to look at what is inside the wall. “We are confident that the Battle of Angyari is under the work of Vasari,” he said.